(Reuters) - Target Corp raised its quarterly profit and sales forecasts on Tuesday on the back of surging online sales and customer visits in November and December, putting the U.S. retailer on track for the best quarter in five years.

The Minneapolis-based chain, whose shares closed up 3 percent at $69.14, raised its fourth-quarter profit forecast to $1.30-$1.40 per share from an earlier range of $1.05-$1.25.

That was well above analysts' average forecast of $1.22 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Target is slated to have poured $1 billion of last year's profits into an effort to boost sales, mainly by investing in online business and delivery options to take on Amazon.com Inc .

It has hired more staff, remodelled existing stores and focussed on building small-format stores to reach more customers in suburbs.

On Tuesday, the company said same-store sales rose 3.4 percent in November and December and that its online sales growth was on track to report its fourth straight year of more than 25 percent gains.

"Target's brick-and-mortar customers are growing in their affinity to the Target online interface, pricing on hot products in the fourth quarter and the ability to deliver in time," Jim Fosina, chief executive of Fosina Marketing Group, said.

Target raised its same-store sales growth forecast for the quarter ending January to 3.4 percent, from a prior forecast of flat to up 2 percent.

Research firm Retail Metrics' President Ken Perkins said that, if that target were met, it would be the company's strongest quarterly gain since the first quarter of 2012.

Target's is the latest in a run of relatively upbeat holiday sales numbers from brick-and-mortar retailers who have suffered most from the huge gains made by Amazon and other online retailers over the past decade.